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Monday, April 16, 2012

HR for Principals: Take Out Your Own Trash

For
the past month or so I’ve been helping administrators take out a great
deal of trash. Admittedly, as an Employee Relations Specialist, that’s
kind of my job but still. You
know the kind of trash I’m talking about. The teacher whose attendance
for the past 10 years has been spotty at best. The teacher whose
students are floundering with new material, have no chance of passing
the state test, and spend their entire day completing ‘review’
worksheets while he surfs the net. Just
in case I’m still not being clear - the trash I’m talking about is poor
teachers. Teachers who should have been counseled out of the
profession during their first year but who have by some miracle stayed
in in the classroom. Every school has at least one. And
as #edleaders it’s our job to get rid of them. In fact, it should be
one be one of our highest priorities. Listen, I know it’s a
pain-in-the-ass drawn out process to get rid of a teacher. I know the
union or association or whatever is going to fight you every step of the
way. I know you’re going to have to spend at least a year (more likely
two or three) documenting, observing, coaching, and evaluating. I
know the process is going to pull you away from other things that are
equally important.And yet I say again, take out your trash.Don’t leave it to the next administration. Don’t blame the previous administration. Roll up your shirt sleeves and get-r-done.The
negative impact just one bad teacher can have on students is just too
much to ignore. The widely held rule is that it takes a student two to
four years to recover from a bad teacher - two to four years!